I was given the Liebster award by Julia Goss of Beyond The Books Homeschool and let me just say, thank you Julia! These challenges really help me to keep blogging and plucking away at it. I have really enjoyed being part of the blogging community and the acceptance I have found in it.

So,the Liebster Award is a thing where you tell 11 facts about yourself, answer 11 questions that the person that you nominated you asked, and award 11 people, who you then ask to answer 11 questions you come up with. The rules are posted at the end of this post.

So to start it all off, 11 random facts about me:

My favorite movie still to this day is Labyrinth, because it reminds me of spending time with my dad watching sci-fi and fantasy movies.

I started college in high school because I was bored with the classes that were offered at the high school, and hey- free college.

Both of my kids were born at 37 weeks.

I am NOT an outdoor type person. At all. Like, completely. Just… no.

I would much rather be at home than at a party or with a bunch of people. Total introvert.

My favorite past time is reading, I just wish I had more time for it .

I love painting, but I don’t feel creative enough to come up with something on my own, so I find things I like and do my own version of it.

Coffee is a MUST to start the day.

Pinot Grigio is my favorite wine. I’m not a fan of sweet wines.

We are a Whovian household. (If you don’t know Doctor Who, check it out on Netflix and go back to my roots in sci-fi and fantasy. )

I love baking but I have mostly stopped because then I eat all of it!!!

The days after Christmas are always a little depressing to me. My oldest was even upset on Christmas morning, saying even before he got out of bed that “I will miss Christmas when it’s over!”

We all had a wonderful Christmas, but the next few days following I have been filled with dread of having to take down all the pretty Christmas decorations….. Putting them up is easy. Taking down is the WORST!

Christmas left me sick, probably just from being run down after all the events that occur over only a few days, meaning I have been achy and have had a headache since yesterday.

But it was all worth it for the joy on the boys faces on Christmas. To see them excited to wake up, hear my oldest open his stocking ( which contained a few educational activities) and hear him exclaim “thank you for school work Santa!”, and actually mean it. Because I’m sure in a few years that statement will be more sarcastic.

I was overjoyed with how well behaved both children were through everything and how TRULY grateful for everything they were.

I was amazed to watch them as they opened gifts, not as a free for all as I half expected them to, but slowly, watching each other open, and being so happy for what they or their sibling received.
Overall, it was a wonderful time spent with family, enjoying our time together, and being amazed at our children.

I hope you all had a merry and blessed Christmas, are recovering well, and are ready for the new year!

However, I tend to forget to return stuff until I have received multiple late notices.

I’m tying to be better about getting them to the library, as it’s great to change out books, look for videos, and it gets them in some play time.

So today, as my husband took the youngest on an errand, I packed up the oldest and headed to the library, overdue books in tow.

Lately we have been focusing more on reading in our homeschool. My oldest will try to sound out words, but for some reason is having issues with blending the sounds together even though he says all the sounds, so a trip for some new books was needed.

We hadn’t been there long when my husband called to say he was done with his errand and wanted to bring the youngest to meet up.

We have been spending a lot of time at home lately, so it was nice for the kids to get out and do something different.

I know with me working full time, their days are mostly spent at home doing things there with dad, rather than going out.

It’s such a simple thing, going to the library. I need to work on getting them out more, and since the library is free AND close, we really should make this a weekly or bi-monthly outing.

Do you have any tips for getting out with the kids that are low cost? Or any ideas on how to help a child with blending sounds? Let me know in the comments!

I know this has been a long time coming. I mean, this trip happened in September and I am just now getting off my butt to tell you about it.

Disneyland!!! We planned this trip FOREVER. Like, for so long that when we started planning, we were to go with my bro-in-law and his girlfriend, and by the time we went, they had broke up and were on friendly enough terms to be able to enjoy the trip together. It was THAT LONG.

It meant that we had that long to look forward to it, but now it’s really sad that it’s over!

Holidays at Disneyland

One of the things that I thought would be cool, but that I actually found a detriment to the trip, was that they were all decorated and things were changed for Halloween.

Space mountain was total crap. Changed mostly to a dark ride, with short increments of an orange-ish light and what is supposed to be an orange colored ghost “chasing” you, it loses the magic of going light speed in space.

Haunted mansion was decked out in Nightmare Before Christmas, which was fine except that my oldest, who had been super excited and watching YouTube videos on the haunted mansion, was very disappointed with how it was redone. He was not into the whole Jack Skellington thing.

Next time we go, I will be planning it for no where near a holiday.

A few helpful tips we found while there:

Don’t buy toys or gifts early in the day. Unless you want to haul that crap around all day and pack them on rides. Not cool.

No stroller. Do you really want to push a stroller through these crowds only to have to abandon it for rides and try to find it again? The youngest was almost 4 and hadn’t used a stroller in quite awhile so I figured that if he got tired, between the 4 adults we could manage carrying him. My only mistake was that he only wanted me. But I feel like this was still better than having to maneuver a stroller through crowd, and built up those muscles! (Ok for real it was exhausting but still better than a stroller in crowds in my opinion )

Switch rider passes ROCK. For some of the rides, the youngest was too small. This meant that one of us could go with the older child, get a switch rider pass (good for 3 people) and the other three adults could go later WHENEVER THEY WANTED. These suckers are good for anytime of day, unlike fast passes which have a specific time you have to use them or they are no good.

My oldest child’s favorite ride, California Screaming

Wear good shoes. It’s a lot of walking, especially when carrying a child everywhere. Also, go on any wetter ride and you could be walking in wet shoes the rest of the day. Trust me, you don’t want blisters 2 days in with multiple days to go.

We were in the actually park 5 of the 6 days we were there, with a day off in the middle to rest and hang by the pool.

This was perfect as by the third day the youngest was so tired he wasn’t even interested in attempting Disneyland again. He continued for the whole rest of the trip saying he didn’t want to go to Disneyland, and that we can always “just go tomorrow” (sorry honey, that’s not how this works).

On a rainy day, we still were out and about riding rides and meeting characters

Overall it was a fantastic trip, with lots of wonderful memories. The kids had fun, the adults had fun and were EXHAUSTED, but it is something we won’t forget.

Only thing is, we now have to save up for it again because the oldest loved it so much.

Today’s post is supposed to be a photo day of Christmas photos from past or present. Mostly these are recent from this month and a few from last year. So sit back, enjoy not having to read a bunch, and just be happy!
Merry Christmas!!!

Since there are only 10 days left until Christmas (WHAT!!!) I’m not going to continue tagging people. I hope those I have tagged are enjoying this challenge, and I am really enjoying reading all of your stuff! Have a great day!